Marty Sklar, the former Chairman of Walt Disney Imagineering, stands in front of the window with his name on it on the City Hall building in Town Square of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. Many of the names on the windows for fake businesses on Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland are references to people who helped build Disneyland, or were key in later additions to, or operations of the park. There are also windows in Frontierland, and one in Adventureland. The businesses are usually an inside joke related to the person’s hobbies or contributions. Sklar died Thursday, July 27, 2017. (File photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marty Sklar, former vice-chair of Walt Disney Imagineering, died Thursday, July 27, 2013. He is a Disney Legend. (File photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marty Sklar is the only Disney staffer who has participated in the opening of all 11 Disney theme parks around the world. He led the Disney Imagineering teams who created nine Disney parks over 30 years. He was named a Disney Legend in 2001. After 54 years with the company, he retired on July 17, 2009, the 54th anniversary of Disneyland, and was honored with a window on City Hall at the park that day. Sklar died Thursday, July 27, 2017. (File photo by H. Lorren Au Jr., Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marty Sklar, the former Chairman of Walt Disney Imagineering, stands in front of the window with his name on it on the City Hall building in Town Square of Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. Many of the names on the windows for fake businesses on Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland are references to people who helped build Disneyland, or were key in later additions to, or operations of the park. There are also windows in Frontierland, and one in Adventureland. The businesses are usually an inside joke related to the person’s hobbies or contributions. Sklar died Thursday, July 27, 2017. (File photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marty Sklar is all smiles as he waited for the premiere of The Lion King at the Walt Disney Grand Theater at the Shanghai Disney Resort on June 14, 2016. Sklar had many jobs at Disney including supervising the design and construction of Tokyo Disneyland, the Disney-MGM Studios, Disneyland Paris, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Disney California Adventure Park, Tokyo DisneySea, the Walt Disney Studios Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. Sklar died Thursday, July 27, 2017. (File photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Sklar was often called the Jiminy Cricket for the organization because he served as Walt Disney’s right-hand man and passed along knowledge in a five-decade-plus career with The Walt Disney Co. Sklar often mentored young so-called imagineers and served as an ambassador for the company even after his retirement in 2009.

“He understands the Disney way because he learned it at Walt’s knee,” Jim Cora, a former chairman of Disneyland International, said in 2006. “He is the keeper of the keys, the conscience, the Jiminy Cricket for the organization.”

Born February 6, 1934, in New Brunswick, N.J., Sklar got his start with Disney while attending UCLA, where he was a writer and editor for the Daily Bruin. A month before Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955, Disney hired the 21-year old to create The Disneyland News, a tabloid sold on Main Street, U.S.A.

Sklar started writing scripts, marketing materials and speeches for Walt Disney. He climbed the ladder of the design and engineering division responsible for creating attractions for Disney’s theme parks.

Sklar oversaw the design and construction of many of Disney’s theme parks. He is believed to have been the only person to attend the opening of every Disney theme park, including last year’s at Shanghai Disneyland.

He hated it when people referred to Disney attractions as “rides.”

“I fought for years not to use word ‘ride’ because I felt that what we do is stories and immersive experiences, and a ride vehicle is just a method of going through the story,” Sklar said to the official Disney Parks blog. “We do stories, we do experiences, and we do adventures. Early on, we developed this language so Disney parks attractions would stand out from what everyone else was doing.”

Sklar retired on July 17, 2009, Disneyland’s 54th birthday.

“Everything about Marty was legendary – his achievements, his spirit, his career,” Bob Iger, chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co., said in a statement. “He embodied the very best of Disney, from his bold originality to his joyful optimism and relentless drive for excellence.”

After retiring, Sklar wrote books about how to create theme parks: “Dream It! Do It!: My Half-Century Creating Disney’s Magic Kingdoms,” and “One Little Spark!: Mickey’s Ten Commandments and The Road to Imagineering.”

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Leah; children Howard and Leslie; and four grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Marty’s name to Ryman Arts at www.rymanarts.org.

Editor’s note: Mark Eades worked for The Walt Disney Co. from 1972 to 1993, including 11 years at Walt Disney Imagineering, when Sklar was his boss.

Mark Eades is currently a multi-media reporter for the Orange County Register. He has covered the theme park industry since 2009. He has also covered breaking news and for three years, covered Orange County's canyons and the community of Coto de Caza. Prior to working at the Orange County Register, he worked at the Orange County Newschannel for nearly five years. Prior to that he worked as a writer and producer in the theme park design business. In fact, he was a Disney Imagineer from 1982 to 1993 where he worked on many projects for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

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